Merchandising carrier



a. M. FINGERUT ETA'- 3,415,532

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ATTORNEY Dec. 1o, 196s B- M- FNGERUT m'- 3,415,532

MERCHANDI SING CARRIER 2 SheetsSheet 2 INVENTORS. BORIS M. FINGERUT ARTHUR E. MAY, JR.

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Filed April 27, 1967 ATTOR N EY United States Patent O 3,415,532 MERCHANDISING CARRIER Boris M. Fingerut, Lake Oswego, Oreg. 97034, and Arthur E. May, Jr., Lake Grove, Oreg. 97034 Filed Apr. 27, 1967, Ser. No. 634,299 3 Claims. (Cl. 280-34) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An open wheeled carrier consisting of a bottom platform and walls on three sides, the carrier designed for the purpose of moving and displaying a quantity of merchandise in a sales area, and capable of being disassembled into compact condition for storage when not in use.

Background of the invention The invention relates broadly to carts and hand trucks ymounted on wheels used for moving merchandise from a storeroom into an open sales area, and suitable for being easily pushed about from one location to another, and also relates to display racks and stands on which quantities of articles or packaged goods are placed in retail stores and supermarkets to promote sales and aid customers in obtaining or selecting merchandise desired.

Summary of the inventionv The device of the present invention has been developed for the double purpose of facilitating the moving of a quantity of goods from a storeroom to a main sales area and for setting the goods up for display and in such arrangement as to provide convenient access to the goods for selection by purchasers. A further object of the invention is to provide an improved carrier adapted to serve this double purpose and which is also so shaped that a plurality of the carriers, when empty, can be arranged temporarily in nested position to take up less space while awaiting use. An additional object is to provide a carrier which can readily be completely disassembled and placed into compact, knocked-down position for storage or shipment in quantities.

Brie]c description lof the drawings In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the carrier fully set up but in empty condition;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary and foreshortened sectional elevation on line 2 2 of FIG. 1 drawn to a larger scale;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary and foreshortened sectional elevation on line 3--3 of FIG. 1 drawn to the same scale as FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary section on line 4-4 of FIG. 1, drawn to a still larger scale, with a portion of the platform deck broken away for clarity;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary section on line 5-5 of FIG. 1 drawn to the same scale as FIG. 4, also with a portion of the bottom `deck broken away for clarity;

FIG. `6 is a fragmentary section on line 6--6 of FIG. 1 drawn to the same scale as FIGS. 4 and 5;

FIG. 7 is a top plan view of the carrier drawn to a smaller scale than FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a plan view drawn to the same scale as FIG. 7 showing two of the carriers in nested position;

FIG. 9 is an exploded view showing the various demountable parts of the carrier disengaged and separated from each other preparatory to the placing of the carrier in compact, knocked-down position; and

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing theY carrier in knockeddown position.

3,415,532 Patented Dec. 10, 1968 p ICC Description 0f the preferred embodiment Referring first to FIGS. l, 7 and 9 the carrier consists of a bottom wheel-supported platform assembly, including a deck 10, in the shape of an isoceles trapezoid, a pair of side wall assemblies 11 and 12, and a rear wall assembly 13. When the carrier is set up in operative position the two side wall assembles 11 and 12 extend upwardly `in vertical but non-parallel planes. However, the lrear wall assembly l13 extends upwardly in `a plane sloping slightly rearwardly. The rear wall assembly is rectangular in shape. The side wall assemblies 11 and 12 are both of a same size `and shape and the upright Imembers in these side wall assemblies slope obliquely upwardly and rearwardly to correspond to the upward and rearward slope of the back wall assembly 13 when the carrier is in set-up position.

The sidewall assembly 11 includes la tubular border frame member 16 extending around three sides and upright and cross members within the space enclosed by the border frame member 16, which upright and cross members are welded to the border member and to each other. The side wall assembly 11 also has a bottom angle-iron member 14 so arranged as to have a top ange 14 which extends inwardly beneath the corresponding edge of the deck 10. This top ange 14 and the deck 10 are provided with registering bolt holes to receive the clamping bolts 15 `by which the side Wall assembly 11 is secured to the deck 10. The bottom ends of the upright members in the sidewall assembly 11 are all welded to the outer face of the angle-iron member 14 and the two bottom ends of the border frame lmember 16 :are both deformed, as shown more clearly in FIG. 6, in order to provide a greater weld area 'for securing of these bottom ends of the border frame member 16 to the `angle-iron member 14, while at the same time retaining a necessary degree of tubular rigidity.

The side wall assembly 12 is formed in the same manner as the side wal-l `assembly 11 and need not be described separately. It has a similar bottom angle-iron member 17 (see FIG. 3) having an inwardly extending top flange 17', and this angle-iron member similarly is removably secured to the corresponding edge of the deck 10 by bolts 18.

The rear wall assembly 13 has a U-shaped tubular border member 19 of the same diameter as the border frame members of the side Wall assemblies 11 and 12, and similarly has cross members extending over the space bordered by the member 19. This rear wall assembly 13 also similarly has a bottom angle-iron member 20 (FIG. 2) to which the ends of the border member 19 and the bottom ends of the interposed upright members of the wall are welded, and the bottom angle-iron member 20 has a top flange 20 extending inwardly under the rear edge of the deck 10 and removably secured to the rear edge portion of the deck 10 by bolts 21.

The side wall assembly 11 has a pair of identical brackets 22, one of which `is shown more clearly in FIG. 4, which are Welded on the border member 16. The rear wall assembly 13 has a pair of cooperating engaging brackets 22', one of which is shown in FIG. 4, welded to the :border member 19 and so positioned as to be in registration with the brackets 22 respectively when the wall assemblies 11 and 13 are in set-up position. The cooperating pairs of brackets 22, 22' have overlapping tongues which carry registering bolt holes to receive clamping bolts 23.

Similarly the side wall assembly 12 and the rear wall assembly 13 have corresponding pairs of cooperating engaging brackets 24, 24 adapted for being bolted together.

From the description thus far, it will be apparent that when the carrier is to be set up from 'the knocked-down position of FIG. to that shown in FIG. l, the two side wall assemblies 11 and 12 and the rear wall assembly 13 are secured to the respective edges of the deck 10 by bolting their bottom angle-iron members 14, 17 and 20 respectively to the corresponding edge portions of the deck 10 and the side Wall assemblies and rear wall assembly `are connected by bolting the cooperating pairs of brackets 22, 22' and 24, 24 together, which operations are quite simple and easily performed.

The deck 10, which preferably comprises a single sheet of relatively thin metal, has a reinforcing angle-iron member 25 (FIG. 2), similar in cross section to the angleiron members 14, 17 and 20, which extends across the front edge of the deck, and, which is bolted to the deck. The front edge portion of the deck is turned down over the front face of this member 25, as shown at 2e in FIG. 2, and the edge terminates in an upwardly-rearwardly extending ange 27 at the bottom, thus providing a smooth front end face for the deck. The deck also has four additional reinforcing angle-iron members 28, 29, 30 and 31 (FIG. 3) extending vbeneath the deck from back to front, arranged in spaced parallel pairs. Pairs of caster wheel assemblies 32 and 33 (FIGS. 2 and 3) of full swivelling type are mounted beneath the pairs of angle-iron bottom reinforcing members 28, 29 and 30, 31 respectively by means of bolts 34 which extend through registering holes in the angle-iron members and in the deck 10.

To protect persons against possible contact with the two sharp corners at the front of the bottom platform assembly, a -pair of curved guard members 35 and 26 have their ends formed with loops to enable them to be bolted in position and are spaced around the two front corners of the carrier respectively, being secured in position lby suitable bolts, as shown in FIGS. 1, 5 and 8.

Not only is the carrier easily disassembled to completely knocked-down position for compact condition for shipment or storage when desired, and then quickly and easily set up into operative position, las previously described, but, due 4to the trapezoidal shape of the bottom 'platform portion of the carrier, it is possible to arrange a plurality of the carriers in nested position when temporarily not in use, as indicated in FIG. 8, to conserve occupied space.

The fact that the rear wall assembly 13 slopes rearwarldy as well as upwardly enables articles to be stacked in slightly rearwardly-leading rows in the carrier with much less likelihood of the stacks tumbling -forwardly when the stacks are disturbed or when the carrier is moved from one location to the other. If the stacks of articles were perfectly vertical they would, as is well known, very likely tumble forwardly if the stacks were high and articles were carelessly removed from the carrier.

We claim:

1. A merchandising carrier comprising a platform assembly in the shape of an isoceles trapezoid, a plurality of caster wheel assemblies mounted beneath said platform assembly, a pair of identical side wall assemblies, a rear wall assembly, means for removably securing the bottom portions of said side wall assemblies and said rear wall assembly to the side edge portions and rear edge portion of said platform assembly respectively when the carrier is in set-up position, said rear wall assembly so arranged as to slope rearwardly-upwardly with respect to said platform assembly when said rear wall assembly is in mounted position, the rear edges of said side wall assemblies sloping rearwardly-upwardly t0 correspond with the rearward-upward slope of said rear wall assembly, and means for removably connecting the side edges of said rear wall assembly with the adjacent rear edges of said side wall assemblies respectively when said carrier is in set-up position.

2. The merchandising carrier of claim 1 with a deck member in said platform assembly and with said side wall assemblies and said rear wall assembly each formed with a bottom member having a flange extending inwardly beneath the corresponding edge of said deck member and so arranged as lto be removably bolted to said deck member.

3. The merchandising carrier of claim 2 with said platform assembly including a front reinforcing member extending transversely across beneath said deck member, and with the front end of said deck member turned down over said front reinforcing member to form a front face for said platform assembly, and with the addition of front corner curved guard members extending from said bottom members of said side wall assemblies respectively to said turned down front face of said platform assembly.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,572,780 10/ 1951 Tackenberg 280-33.99 2,935,330 5/1960 Millman 2SC- 33.99 3,007,708 1l/l961 Ochs 280--33.99 3,191,959 6/1965 Hei-mbruch et al. 280-36 3,224,787 12/ 1965 Andersen 28o-33.99

BENJAMIN HERSH, Primary Examiner.

M. L. SMITH, Assistant Examiner. 

